Quick Critique | Sam Blissard

A lot of the feedback I received pertained to the solutions I proposed for the unintuitive parking garage payment system in question. However, one critique really stuck out to me because it challenged my perceived “unintuitiveness” of the system in place:

Don’t you think that this system was to shorten lines for the exit due to people not paying at the exit?

I think this is a fantastic piece of feedback because it addresses something I never even considered: what the current system accomplishes. Rather than getting out your wallet, figuring out how much money you owe, and awkwardly inserting the ticket and cash into a machine from the driver seat, you just return the ticket. This does make for a more efficient exit pipeline in theory but, as I highlighted in my presentation with my anecdote, that efficiency is ultimately determined by the users’ familiarity with this system. Personally, I still stand by the conventional payment system because it reduces the number of the steps down to 2, providing for a more streamlined and familiar experience. But I appreciate this critique and will definitely start to consider the tradeoffs that alterations and/or replacements to an existing system bring. Thanks to everyone else for your critiques too!